Nasa Plans To Turn A Lunar Crater Into A Giant Telescope (Photo)

US space agency NASA is considering turning one of the craters on the moon into a telescope. This was reported by the news agency Cnet.

The agency chose the idea of ​​creating a radio telescope in a lunar crater as part of its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) funding program.

The author of the project is Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay, a robotics expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to him, to create a telescope in the crater, you will need to send robots to the back of the moon and use them to deploy a wire mesh over the crater.

According to experts, the lunar device will be an ideal tool for obtaining a variety of information, including about the early Universe, as well as for searching for extraterrestrial civilizations. A telescope on the moon can conduct observations at wavelengths of ten to fifty meters, which are reflected by the Earth’s ionosphere. It is protected from radio noise and interference caused by our planet and the Sun, which will greatly improve the accuracy of measurements.

The authors of the project intend to entrust the construction of a unique telescope to robots. Their manipulators will stretch the wire mesh around the perimeter of the crater, and a receiver will be installed in the center to pick up the signals. Currently, scientists have received nine months of the term and 125 thousand dollars to fully complete the first of the three stages of work on the project, after which it must receive the approval of the agency to continue activities.

The project was proposed as part of the NIAC program, the purpose of which is to support ideas in the field of astronautics, research of the solar system and deep space, rocket and satellite engineering and aeronautics, which in the future can have a serious impact on the development of the entire aerospace industry and can be implemented within 10 – 40 years.